John McCain would do well to avoid matters of substance, Shawn, as he tends to piss off liberals and conservatives alike when attempting to do his job. Symbolic grandstanding is what the guy is best suited for, and so he should be lauded for finally accepting his limitations as a lawmaker and playing to his own strengths.

If there's an injustice here then it needs to be dealt with, but is he still alive? If not, then this is maddening to me.

What I can't understand is why Wall Street and the rest of the markets are reacting like nothing is happening in the jobs side of things and the rest of the economy. And now I see from WSJ that the TARP is being retooled to show that it's actually going to cost us more as tax payers then initially what we were told. ( CBO: TARP May Be More Costly Than First Thought)

Top it off with what the government is seeking control wise in the boardrooms of banks and other businesses and financials should be running scarred. It's Fascism 101.

With all this spending to top things off, gold should be going through the roof and wall street to the floor. Yet right now I'm looking at the DOW and it's down a little on jobless claims, but it's not really reacting and gold is slipping below $900 according to real time widget ExactExactPrice.

It's just mind numbing to me. I can't figure out how so many can just turn a blind eye.

Just more of the same. As in people and companies TODAY, apologizing for slavery WHICH THEY NEVER ENGAGED IN to people WHO WERE NEVER HELD AS SLAVES.

Let's all have a big GROUP HUG. It won't solve a damned thing, but gosh!, we'll all feel better about ourselves!

GarandFan, I like your thinking: if we would just ignore everybody who has ever been wronged until they die, then justice will have been served.

Unfulfilled moral obligations can be passed down from generation to generation; and having a duty to make restitution does not necessarily imply that you are personally responsible for that which you are called to make restitution for.

And, just because southern white people squandered the massive material advantage that slavery afforded them, does not mean that they have no inherited obligation of wronging a right, even if only through symbolism and a genuine expression of kindness.

Hyperbolist:

Your insulting posts are becoming tiresome.
So is much of your cut and paste posts.
As to your sneer about southern white people,
you are quite over the line.
How about you address the problem of
african slavery where it originated,
and goes on today.
Let's include African tribes who raided neighboring tribes, moving their captives
to the coasts for sale to whomever would pay for them,including arabs.
When the United States taxpayers are forced into reparations for injustices done
hundreds of years ago, let's see the
same reparations from Africans who are
descended from the african slavers.

maggie, I understand that you're the editor, and enjoy the status and all of the trappings that come along with it. However, please don't ever think that your personal opinion could ever make a shred of difference to how I view myself, or any other thing in the world.

I have nothing to learn about the history of slavery, or the debate on reparations, from you. Notice that I never said anything about material reparations, and was speaking only of moral obligation in general. For you to infer that that implies financial restitution is revealing of how litigious you are. As for the "sneer", you can complain about my tone as much as you like, but here is a fact: white southern Americans exploited black slaves; gained significant material advantage; and then squandered it. I have no idea why you would take offence to such a statement, which is so obvious it's bordering on the tautological. And I'm not being condescending (not morally condescending, anyway): I'm of Dutch Canadian heritage, and I'm well aware of abhorrent Dutch colonial actions, not to mention the ongoing national embarrassment that is the ghettoization of our own indigenous peoples.

Hyperbolist;
You should reread my post about reparations.
No where did I write the word monetary.
Moving the goal posts doesn't work, nor
manipulations.
My being the comments section editor has nothing to do with the above subject. So move on.
As to the rest of your vapid post, keep on
and I'll treat you like the cheap troll
you are.

Maggie, if you view hyper as a mere nuisance, he doesn't get under your skin. He always gives the cheap shots and lives up to the democrats 3 D's program. ww

Wild Willie,

A troll by any name is still a cheap troll.

In all fairness to Peter King he may be running for US Senate against Hillebrand. He needs to court some black votes.

A member of Congress can work on more than one project/task at a time . . . meaning that John McCain and Peter King can work on providing posthumous justice for Jack Johnson while still working on current national issues.

Hell has officially frozen over. I AGREE WITH MR MALLOW.